The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-07-01
TEMPERANCE READING.
THE RUM THIRST.

ConviyiaI Drinking and the Habit of
Treating--The personal Liberty" CUES
fioR.
Ii is fact known to all men that
afunk5rds and drinking inen are made
by conyivial drinking, and especially
BY the abominable habit of treating
which prevails SO extensively. Two
men meet in saloon, or perhaps
several come together; one invites the
Others to drink at his expense. Then
another of the party, not wishing to
appear ehuflish, proposes another
drink at his expense; and SO it goes
round the circle until as many drinks
have been taken as there are persons
therein. 1t is plain that such course
of training will very speedily beget in
the system of one subjected to it, the
abominable Drink Thirst-that crav-
Ing, gnawirg desire for alcoholic
stimulus which is incomprehensible to
any one not yet its victim; yet which
is most awful reality to those who
are.
There is no human appetite so ter
fible i'll its cravings as this. One of
its slaves told the writer few years
since; "When this internal craving
comes upon me, if glass of whisky
were set before me. and l knew, to an
absolute certainty; that ] would be
stricken dead one minute after | had
swallowed it, l would gulp it down"
The Drink Thirst is the only earthly
approximation to the fortunes of the
damned in perdition. 1t is consuming
fire within the vitals, which can only
be extinguished for the time being by
alcohol, and this in turn increases the
internal thirst on the next occasion.
1t is plain, too, that as the very great
majority of our drunkards and a
drunkard is nothing but a man in
whom this Rum thirst has been estab-
lished-are caused by this conyivial
system of drinking, if the opportunity
for treating were removed-if there
was not on every square of every city
of the land, on every street of every
village, places whore this conviviality
can be indulged-those men who have
not yet established this fearful Rum
thirst, this habit of drinking, all of the
rising generation who are as yet too
young to have commenced, would be
saved from all danger of ever becom-
ing drunlzards.
The taste for liquor is not natural
one. There are some persons who are
under an inherited curse, in whom the
taste for rum is horrible legacy left
them by All Incorporate father or
grandfather but they are as yet only a
small proportion of the entire commu-
nifty. The taste of liquor, to an unac-
customed palate, is generally unwel-
come. A young man, to become Il
drinking man, has first to overcome
this repugnance. In very many cases,
probably nine out of ten, this would
never happen if the opportunity for
contivial drinking were taken away.
How can this be doneP Simply by clos
ing the places devoted thereto. Shut up
every saloon, every public drinking
place, and nine-tenths Of the next gener-
alton of drunkards would be saved.
Butwhen such a subject is preached,
up comes the cry that there is an in
vasioh of personal liberty" Now,
SO far as the rights of the rumseller are
concerned, or the individual right of
each separate drinker to indulge his
taste as he may choose, they are but a
small proportion of the question Vt
issue. 1t is not question whether A
has the right to sell glass of whisky
to B, OF whether 9 has right TO buy
from d a schooner of beer and drink
it; but it also embraces the question
whether the wife and children and
other dependents of B and G, the
drinkers, have any rights which A or
d or B or G are bound to respect.
The question is whether A has a
right to fill his till with the hard earn
ings Of BIS daily labor in exchange for
the vile body.rot in which he deals,
while BIS wife and little ones are starry
ing at homo, and after getting from
him his last nickel, and stealing from
him his brains as we'll. turning him
out, to stagger home and beat and
abuse them. 1t is not a question
whether John Smith, when sober,
is good citizen whose right to an oc-
casional glass is not to be interfered
with; but whether John Smith, having
weakness for an occasional glass
and bearing grudge against his neigh
Dor, may go to the doggery, and after
having reused all the baser passions of
his nature by indulgence - having
gotten himself "fghting drunk may
happen to remember his grudge, and,
meeting his neighbor, may murder him
in his drunken rage.
Again, it is a question involved in
this issue of personal liberty"
whether man is not q public enemy
who keeps open, day and night, re-
sort which becomes the gathering
place for the vicious and dangerous
elements of society, whose sole occu-
patton it is to sell to them, as long
as they can beg, borrow or steal the
money, his vile decoctions, which can
not fail to render these persons still
more vicious and dangerous to the
peace and welfare of the community.
The question comes up whether the
community has not a right to guard
itself against such manifest danger.
Toledo Blade.